Tax cuts are on legislators’ lips, a function of promises that seem to be the campaign boilerplate in statewide elections these days. Looking at you, Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

The problem, as explained in a recent Express-News article by Austin bureau chief Peggy Fikac, is that the pledges are bumping up against immutable and growing state needs.

The reality is that even a Ginsu knife might not be able to slice this budget fine enough. Transportation, higher education, public K-12 education, pensions, water, debt service, a growing population that will mean more services needed, not fewer. The list is longer than the face of a cut-happy legislator told about these needs.

Oh, also on the table: placing tighter caps on the ability to raise property tax revenue at the local level to pay for services. And also looming are lower oil prices that threaten to cut revenues from that source, imposing a double whammy by throwing people out of work.

In an ideal world, legislators might look at the needs and say, “Nope; no tax cuts this budget — times are too uncertain.” And, in an ideal world, they’d say this though the governor and lieutenant want these cuts.

Unfortunately, many Texas legislators suffer from the same fervor — believing as a matter of writ that tax cuts stimulate the economy and raise revenues. And if that were strictly true, Texas and the nation already would have as much revenue as required to take care of needs.

But even with relatively rosy comptroller estimates, it’s clear that Texas’ needs exceed even what a recovering — and, lately, but not forever — oil rich economy has provided.

And this is even before a ruling by the Texas Supreme Court on public school funding that could put a gun to legislators’ heads to fund schools adequately.

“You’ve got pensions, you’ve got water, you’ve got transportation, we’re in the courthouse over public education,” he said in that article by Fikac. “I want to see that we meet these needs before we talk about tax cuts.”